The Prince of Aruna
by Azure Butterfly
Summary: There was once a city with a terrible secret... Transformation, reborn fic.


_Yet another legend sort of thing from me. _

_The mysterious machine is my own creation – feel free to use it, just give me credit. _

_Twenty bucks to whoever knows where the basis for this idea came from. _

-~-

The Prince of Aruna

There was once a kingdom hidden deep in a rainforest of the Pokémon World. Like most kingdoms at the time, it was ruled by a powerful king who lived in a grand castle. The walls of the castle were made of slick obsidian polished to a brilliant shine. It did not need a moat – it was situated on a tiny peninsula, on a cliff overlooking the sea. The exotic plants that naturally grew in the area served to keep away invaders. Thorns and poisonous leaves would cause even the most dedicated solider to run away in fright. The rest of the kingdom lay in the solid cliff face – homes were carved into the stone, with stairs and ladders leading up the castle. It was a nice kingdom, rich enough, with plenty of food to go around.

But this kingdom, Aruna, had a secret to it.

Every six hours, the position of the Sun would be in just the right place to affect a strange machine hidden deep within the cliff face. The machine had been built eons before even the castle and the town below it had been built. Strange magics and brilliant design had gone into its creation, but absolutely no one knew exactly who had built it. It was an enormous disk hewn from a light blue stone, with a hole carved into the center. The only thing holding the disk in position was a smooth, golden orb. The hole in the center was just the right size to rest on the golden orb. The whole thing looked highly unstable, yet it stayed perfectly still even if you were to climb up on top of it. When the sun was directly above the disk, or directly below, the whole thing would slowly revolve counterclockwise, until the castle above was illuminated by a sapphire light.

When this happened, something strange would happen to the people of Aruna. When the light touched them, they would slowly begin to glow and change shape, until they were Pokémon. No one was sure why this happened. Visitors from other lands were not affected by this light, but if they were to stay in the kingdom for more than twenty-four hours, they would soon fall to this strange curse. If any of the cursed tried to leave the kingdom, they would permanently become Pokémon.

The king of Aruna was a wise and kind man, but his wife was cunning and greedy. Both had equal power, but the queen wanted more. She devised a plot to steal the throne from her husband. According to law, if the king were to die, the throne would go to his oldest son. The only prince of Aruna was incredibly young, perhaps seven years old. This did not deter the queen, however, as she waited for midnight.

At the stroke of midnight, the mystical blue light flooded the kingdom once again. The queen transformed into a Raichu and slowly crept towards her husband. He was an Arcanine, but she knew exactly what his weakness was. She began to glow faintly in the darkness, and rain soon pattered against the slick sides of the obsidian castle. She charged a ball of energy in her paws and threw it at her husband. The Fire-type howled in pain as the Hidden Power hit him – it was Water-type, and boosted by the rain. Before he could make another sound, she hit him with a close-range Thunder or two and moved on to the next room.

The prince of Aruna never left the palace. His parents both feared what would happen if they let him around people his own age. You see, the prince was the only person in the whole kingdom who did not have a Pokémon form. No one knew about this, but most of the peasants simply took it as the royal family not wanting their child to play with commoners.

As she snuck into his bedroom, the queen readied another Thunder. However, as soon as she stepped into the room, the troublesome boy turned to look at her. "Momma?" he asked. She put on a false smile as she inched closer to him. He looked at her sparking cheeks with curiosity, but he did not know what his mother was doing until it was too late. The force of the attack sent him flying into the wall, dead before he touched the ground.

As the sun began to rise, the queen destroyed all evidence of the murders. She threw the bodies into the sea, and began the next phase of her plan. She ran through the village, sobbing that, in the night, a group of rogue Pokémon had attacked the castle. A Jolteon had attacked her, as a Golem and a Golbat had kidnapped her husband and beloved son. When the search parties (of course) turned out fruitless, the queen was announced as the next ruler of the kingdom.

For ten years, she ruled over Aruna. No one ever expected her of anything. She slowly led the kingdom into extreme poverty, keeping all the kingdom's riches and fine foods to herself. Because of this, two guards at the entrance had a sharp decrease in their pay. And because of that, said guards were more than willing to leave their posts in exchange for a little bit of foreign gold.

The girl who entered the castle was young, perhaps seventeen years old. She wore a thick, brown cloak and a pair of leather sandals. Her face was hidden within the folds of cloth, but one could see that she had a pair of piercing blue eyes. She managed to reach the queen's quarters with an abundance of stealth and luck, and as time would have it, she walked into the bedroom just as the queen was transforming into her Pokémon form. The shocked Raichu began to charge up another attack, but the girl threw a Barrier in between them, causing the attack to ricochet back towards the attacker.

"I know what you did," the girl said simply, "and because of that, you will be cursed. Your kingdom will be forever trapped in these forms, except on the shortest and longest days of the year. Any newcomers to this kingdom will not be affected by this curse unless they stay here for the twenty-four hour time limit."

The Raichu tried another attack – her body glowed red for a moment, and thousands of blood-red X's flew from her body. The Frustration bounced off the Barrier, and the girl continued.

"Your son, who died so young at your own hands, will come back when you least expect it. You too, shall be reborn in a different form when the time comes. But for now, enjoy life ruling over a failing kingdom."

As quickly as she had come into the building, the arcane stranger walked away from the palace.

-~-

Almost fifteen hundred years later, two Pokémon hatched deep within the Viridian Forest. Two Pichu – one with a cruel look in her eyes, and one with a thunderbolt-shaped birthmark over his left eye. Although they were born in the same place, both were taken to different places later in their life – one to Hoenn's Safari Zone, the other to Professor Birch's lab in Littleroot Town.

Lightning and thunder…

Thunder and Lightning.

-~-

_Caught onto it yet?_

_Well, one of the pairings I used to support has gone deep into the squick territory…_


End file.
